A day of working, a bit of riding, some pressure washing.
Unremarkable Thursday.
Thursday
around the house
Busy Wednesday
The morning was all about blueberries. We’re drowning in them. We’ve never had anything close to this amount of berries. The birds have left them alone, and although a heavy rainstorm knocked off a substantial number of young berries/blossoms a few weeks ago, we still have so many berries we don’t know what to do with them. We’ve eaten them by the handful, given them to friends, put them in cereal, frozen them, and today, made preserves. (What about cobblers? Well, our oven is currently out of commission — talk about bad timing.)
So while K and the Boy worked on preserves today, I went out and picked a few more berries.
We’re right back where we started from. Except that we have a few jars of preserves now.
Back to Normal
“I miss Myrtle Beach” was a common refrain today from the Boy. Even though we had (as the kids called it) a crusty hotel, we all enjoyed our time there. Well, the kids enjoyed being there; I enjoyed being with the kids, watching the kids have fun.
Today, we went back to reality, though. Orthodontist appointment, volleyball, swim team. And we cleaned up one of the cars — mine, because it was the most immediately dirty. We’ll get K’s tomorrow.
In the meantime, while we had the pressure washer out, we left a little message in the driveway.
Mid-June Thursday
Taxi service today: E to scout camp at 8:00. L to volleyball conditioning at 9:00. Pick her up at 10:00.
I had just enough time to pick the first blueberries (or second I guess — we did pick some yesterday) and to mow the neighbor’s yard afterward before heading off to take L to sand volleyball practice (including going to pick up her partner). On the way home, a few errands. Then off to pick up the Boy from scout day camp. Back home to get ready for the swim meet.
He dropped his time from 36 seconds to 31 seconds. Great job! A victory regardless of how he stacked up to the competition.
And then a glance at the “Time Machine” widget at the bottom of MTS: a reminder that four years ago today was just as hectic, but it was in Warsaw:
Evening Visitor
I heard it as I went out for my run, heading out at 10:00 this evening rather than 9:00 because everything has been off today. I couldn’t locate it when heading out, but when I returned, there she was, perched on the powerline that supplies lines to our house and the neighbors’ house.
Flood
Spring Flowers
Washing Off the Pollen
Busy Saturday
Today was one of those days that the camera never really comes out because it’s all chaos and business anyway. K had showings in the morning and in the afternoon; E helped around the house in the morning and then spent the afternoon with friends; L helped enormously with the housework; I was the one at home most of the day, doing laundry, cleaning bathrooms, trying to spray for carpenter bees between sprinkles of rain, disassembling an old computer (i.e., removing all hard drives) so we can finally dispose of it.
The only picture from today was of the computer. I thought that was a useless picture.
Instead, here’s one of the view from my kitchen when I first moved to Lipnica Wielka in 1996. That old primary school got remodeled and became a flashy new primary school that was much bigger, and included apartments on the top floor, where I lived when I returned to Poland in the early 2000s. I found this picture going through old pictures, which I then scanned this week.
Spring Bed
We’ve been trying to get the flower beds in shape for spring. We’ve decided not to plant any vegetables this year, but we’re not totally neglecting everything.
Today, I worked on the big bed at the base of our driveway. There were a lot of leaves to remove, a lot of weeds to pull — and I didn’t even spread any mulch or take a before picture. I guess this is as close as it gets.
First Spring Saturday of 2021
We had to be on the soccer field at 8:15 in order to warm up for the 8:45 game. That meant leaving before eight, which we didn’t accomplish, which is why we were late.
We finished the game (we won 3-1 — glad the opposing team got a goal as it’s always disheartening to be blanked) and headed to his scout den’s morning fishing trip.
After lunch, it was time for chores — trimming the crape myrtles in the front.
Nothing left to do but light the cigar and play some chess.
Flat
I came out this morning, cranked K’s car, walked around to my car ready to head to work when I saw I had a flat. Not just a tire with extremely low pressure — a tire with no air at all. It made for a rushed morning.
When I got home in the afternoon, my first priority was to get the flat off and the spare on. The spare had been in the trunk untouched since we bought the car. It had probably been untouched since the car rolled out of the dealership. And it was predictably flat as well.
One would think it’s a Monday…
Working on the Pinewood Derby Car
We polished the nails/axels, cut and weighted the car so that the center of gravity is in the optimal location, rough-sanded, and talked about goals for the derby next week.
“I’d like to get at least third place,” the Boy said.
It’s a good goal: realistic, modest. We’ll see.
The End of the Season
Part of it was laziness, but we’ll chalk it up to Polishness: we finally took down our Christmas tree today. We’d been meaning to do it for a couple of weeks, but we didn’t adequately work it into our schedule.
Or we can use K’s Polishness as an excuse: Poles always put their Christmas trees up later (sometimes, only a couple of days before Christmas) and take them down later.
The Boy and I chopped it up in the afternoon. “This is so satisfying,” he said. For us all, in different ways…
Pre-Christmas Yardwork
Cleaning
Today’s task with the Boy — make some serious improvements in his room. Specifically, in its cleanliness. This meant, in part, going through toys and throwing out things that were broken, packing away to Goodwill things he no longer played with, and generally taking stock of the toys he has and what he needs.
We took out three garbage bags of stuff from his room, including probably 40 cars. We dumped all his cars out into a pile and ran the wheel test: if all four wheels roll, it’s a keeper; if not, toss it.
He was at times somewhat reluctant to give up this or that car. But we tried to be brutal. Heartless. “It’s broken, buddy,” I said I don’t know how many times. “You can’t play with it. You can’t do anything with it…”
“Yeah, but…”
Next, we cleaned out under his bed. Once we got everything taken care of, he decided he wanted to be the monster under the bed. That’s an improvement.
And toward the middle of the afternoon, L made her way into E’s room to clean the windows. K has hired her to do a lot of the Christmas cleaning because she’s saving up for a phone. That’s right. We’ve finally given in. The Girl, at age fourteen, is getting her first phone.
And, in truth, she does need one at times. She called me from volleyball practice once because they’d ended early. “Let’s go ahead and delete that number from the history…” I suggested, handing her the phone when we got in the car.
Cleaning
It’s that time of year — spring Christmas cleaning.
I’ve written before about K and the level of Christmas cleaning she requires:
The window is not dirty; it’s fogged from the gas in between the two panes doing something funky.
That required level of cleanliness now drives the Girl mad. “Why are madre’s standards so high?” (She’s been calling us madre and padre for about a year now. Why? Because.)
“Because they are.” We try to reassure her that it’s good practice for “real life.” “You might get a boss with impossibly high standards. You’ll be used to it.”
I don’t know if she buys it.
Bonfire
Friday Fire
Working from Home
